The invention concerns an ultrasonic applicator for ultrasonic scanning of internal body regions, particularly for the purpose of obtaining ultrasonic echo sectional views, with an ultrasonic transmitting/receiving system consisting of a plurality of ultrasonic transmitter/receiver elements, which are arranged adjacent one another and which can be activated in chronological succession.
An ultrasonic applicator of this type is prior art, wherein the individual ultrasonic transmitter/receiver elements are arranged next to one another in one plane. During chronologically successive excitation of the individual transmitter/receiver elements, the ultrasonic beam energy in the body area which is to be examined is shifted parallel to itself. Thus, the ultrasonic beam energy scans a body area along a succession of mutually parallel lines. During the corresponding linear imaging of the ultrasonic echo signals received from each of the scanning lines, on the viewing screen of an oscilloscope, a sectional view of the body region which is to be examined is obtained in the scanning plane.
Particularly in medical ultrasonic diagnosis, however, there are body regions of interest which are accessible from the body surface only through relatively narrow acoustical apertures, such as, for example, in the case of heart examinations, the intermediary spaces between the ribs, or, in the case of skull examinations, thin bone areas at specific locations at the top of the skull (calvarium); for example, the thin bone area above the ear. Ultrasonic scanning procedures which function according to the principle of sector scanning would be advantageous for the scanning of such body regions.